Personal injury claims from head and neck injuries due to automobile accidents and collisions amount to billions of dollars per year. For this reason, any system that would function to prohibit and/or reduce such injuries has been long sought after by the automobile, medical, and insurance industries.
For the better part of history, most automobile seats were bench-type seats which extended upward from the floor of the vehicle only to approximately the mid-section or upper section of an adult's back. This substantially vertical back portion of the seat provides support for the body of the passenger allowing the passenger to be seated in a relatively upright position. However, these standard bench seats do not provide support for the neck and head of the passenger.
One of the reasons that seats do not extend to the full sitting height of a passenger is that such a structure would obstruct the view of the driver during vehicle operation. In addition, seats extending to the fall sitting height can interfere with the driver hearing conversations within the vehicle causing the driver to strain or concentrate his or her attention elsewhere rather than on the road. Furthermore, each and every passenger is of a different sitting height. It would be very difficult to size and design a seat which comfortably and safely accommodates all potential passengers. The headrest system of the present invention substantially increases driver visibility by allowing smaller headrests to be used throughout the vehicle without sacrificing passenger safety.
In more recent years, headrests and particularly adjustable headrests have attempted to solve this problem of accommodating drivers and passengers (hereinafter collectively referred to as passengers) of different sizes. Basically, an adjustable headrest is a vertically adjustable padded body against which the passenger may rest his or her head. The padded body may be adjusted vertically upwardly from the top of the seat along one or two adjustment posts, supports or rods. In use, the specific passenger is required to move the headrest up or down to properly position the headrest behind his or her head.
Literally hundreds of prior art patents exist in this area of technology which, in theory, should substantially reduce the quantity of head and neck injuries. However, in reality, most passengers improperly position the headrest with reference to his or her individual body size or fail to adjust the headrest at all. Often, the headrest remains at its lowermost position against the top side of the seat. In some cases, to improve visibility, the headrest is removed from the vehicle altogether.
As a result, these headrests not only fail to prevent head and neck injuries, in many instances additional injuries have been incurred due to improperly positioned head rests. For instance, a headrest that is positioned too high will cause the passenger to not only miss the headrest when his or her neck is forced back towards the seat, but the passenger's head and neck will make contact with the rigid supports upon which the headrest is supported resulting in further injuries which would not have occurred had the headrest not been adjustable. Any contact with these rigid support structures, which are typically made out of metal or hard plastic, can cause significant injury to the head and/or neck, particularly when the head and/or neck makes contact with the support structures following an abrupt stop or a collision.
Clearly, the invention of the adjustable headrest is an advancement in the area of safety to the head and/or neck during the operation of or riding in an automobile, but this advancement is only applicable when the headrest is used properly. That is, the adjustable headrest is only effective when it is properly adjusted for each individual's height. Since such an adjustment is generally not properly done, further safety precautions are clearly needed.
Additionally, in certain vehicles individual or bucket seats have replaced the bench seat. These bucket seats often have a built-in headrest which is, in effect, an extension of the seat upward beyond the mid to upper section of the back. This extension acts to provide some head and neck support but a large percentage of visibility is lost due to the upward extension which creates a blind spot in relation to oncoming passing vehicles. In addition, these bucket seats are generally of a standard height such that very tall passengers are still at risk for head and/or neck injuries because height of the passenger exceeds that of the bucket seat. Furthermore, the general design of the bucket seat is such that the head and/or neck are generally several inches to a foot away from this upper part of the seat whereby a collision of the vehicle still causes rapid acceleration of the head and neck toward the seat. Due to this rapid acceleration and non-optimal design of the headrest portion of the bucket seat, injuries still occur.
Several headrest systems have been developed which attempt to properly position a passenger's headrest behind the passenger's neck or attempt to cushion the rearward thrusting of the passenger's head and neck. Examples of these prior art headrest systems include U.S. Pat. No. 3,397,991 which discloses an automobile safety device having a spring loaded headrest and a pendulum which senses a sudden stopping or collision of the vehicle. When the pendulum springs forward the springs are released to force the headrest upwardly.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,586,366 discloses a inertia-responsive retractable head restraint device which rotates to an erect and supportive position when the headrest senses a sudden stop or collision of the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,779,577 discloses a safety installation for the passengers of vehicles especially passengers of motor vehicles. The headrests of the front seats includes front and rear airbags which inflate upon sudden stopping or collision of the vehicle. One airbag inflates towards the front seat passenger to cushion the rearward thrust of the front seat passenger and the other airbag inflates towards the back seat passenger to cushion the forward thrust of the back seat passenger.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,110,185 discloses a vehicle seat which provides rollover protection in convertible or removable roof vehicles. When a sensor senses a rollover condition, a coil spring is released which forces a headrest upwardly beyond the height of the passenger's head to prevent the passenger's head from striking the ground during rollover of the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,355 discloses a seat integrated inflatable neck support having a generally U-shaped inflatable airbag. The airbag is selectively inflatable by the passenger and wraps around the passenger's head and neck to support the passenger 5 head and neck during transit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,466,001 discloses an airbag system for an automobile vehicle which senses the presence of a front seat or back seat passenger and inflates the airbags accordingly upon a collision of the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,484,189 discloses a retractable pop-up headrest usable with a vehicle passenger seat. A spring is attached to the headrest and upon rapid deceleration of the vehicle the spring is activated permitting the headrest to move upwardly towards an operative position.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,556,129 discloses a vehicle seat back which includes a head side impact air bag. The seat includes a tower extending upwardly from the seat back upper end which contains an inflatable air bag which is deployable to provide head and head/body side impact protection for a seat occupant.
Although these prior art headrest systems are adequate for the purpose for which they were intended, these headrest systems fail to move the headrests in the proper position in a quick enough manner. During collisions, a passenger's head and neck are thrust back in a fraction of a second. Spring loaded mechanisms fail to react in the split second between the time of impact and the backward thrusting of the passenger's head and neck. Further, the pendulum mechanism used on several of these headrest systems are unreliable and often malfunction. For these reasons the prior art cited fails to adequately protect passengers and increase vehicle safety both before and during an accident.
Additionally, many automobiles are manufactured with back seat headrests. Typically, these back seat headrests are not vertically adjustable because any upward movement of the back seat headrest would obstruct the view of the driver out the rear window of the vehicle. Instead of vertically adjustable headrests, manufacturers have been extending the height of fixed backseat headrests in an attempt to provide protection while maintaining some measure of visibility out of the rear window of the vehicle. The larger headrests have continued to decrease visibility without any measurable increase in safety being provided to backseat passengers. These unadjustable back seat headrests also fail to adequately protect medium tall to tall passengers because the headrests do not fully extend to an appropriate height to protect the head and neck of these taller passengers. The headrest system of the present invention substantially instantaneously moves the back seat headrest upwardly to the fully extended position to provide support to these back seat passengers upon the occurrence of a collision or abrupt stopping, thereby providing head and neck protection along with better driver visibility in general.
Finally, standard head rests are generally made of the same material as the seat which includes some type of cloth, padded foam, or other material which is relatively comfortable to rest one's body against while still providing substantial support and rigidity as is needed by the seat, During a collision or other similar abrupt stop, the passenger's head and/or neck will often impact the headrest at a high speed. This rigid properties of the headrest cause the headrest to function as a rather hard stop even though it is covered with a cloth or padded foam. It would obviously be preferable to provide a more cushioned stop for the head and/or neck during such a collision or abrupt stop while simultaneously providing sufficient support during standard seating.